The Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences (formerly CROET) faculty held a Science Retreat on Wednesday, October 30, to discuss their mission and research themes, and to learn from the OHSU Foundation about ways that the Institute can gain philanthropic support.

Led by Director Steve Shea, PhD, the Retreat began with a discussion about why we are committing our careers to occupational health and safety. Why do we do what we do. Faculty conducting basic mechanistic research, clinical research, applied research and education and outreach all had different reasons, but basically they are about improving health and safety of Oregon workers, and those beyond Oregon.

The research themes revolve around (a) changing organizations and individual behavior in the workplace; (b) exposures: consequences and prevention); (c) injury, treatment, recovery and prevention; (d) sleep and circadian rhythms; (e) strategies and solutions for vulnerable workers. Each theme is focused on prevention and/or recovery. Faculty are studying mechanisms through basic research, simulations in the laboratory, interventions in the workplace. Many of the themes are being studied through integrated programs from basic mechanistic work at the molecular and cellular level, in animal subjects, and in clinical and human research. This is translated to education and outreach that is designed to disseminate information and support it’s use in the Oregon workplace, and to bring back information on needs in the workplace to inform the research. Much of the faculty’s research can be generalized to the world at large.

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About the author

Kent Anger

W. Kent Anger, PhD, is a Professor and Associate Director for Applied Research at OHSU's Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences. Kent is also the Director of the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center, a NIOSH-funded Center of Excellence in Total Worker Health (TWH).

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